West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-24
THE DRESSING ROOMS.
AN ACTRESS SPEAKS PolNTEDLY OF
A GREAT GRIEVANCE.
Accommodations Out OF Town That Are
Disgrace to Managers-Experience In
Den Infested With villainous Cock
roachcs-A Nuisance.

Den Infested With villainous Cock
roachcs--A Nuisance.
The radiant adolescent was talking to the
sunny haired actress, or rather was drawing
her out and doing the listening. He was one
of those little, STACEY men who blink and look
wise when they know nothing about tho SUD-
ject in hand, and who maintain an appear
ance of blandly stolid imbecility when their
mind is not quite blank.
"And so they treat you so badly behind the
scenesr he said smoothly, as the sunny haired
actress tried to clean q pink satin slipper with
ammonia and then made wry face because
the pungent chemical "went up her nose"
ruthlessly. II wouldn't stand it, by Jove, moi
for minute"
"Oh, yes you would" said the little lady,
making another ammonia dab; you'd stani
great deal more than do; you'd jump II
you got the chance, ha! hal You see, we oil
expect too much. Now, before went upon
the stage used to imagine that each evening
/ should be shown to dainty little dressing
room, richly carpeted, handsomely furnished,
be-looking glassed, be-chaired and be-sofa'd.
was idiotic enough to suppose that the man
agement would supply wardrobe in which
/ could keep my dresses, my properties and
everything to which 1 laid claim. Instead OF
all this-oh, my heart sinks when remember
it"-
aYou don't mean to say that you don't get
decent places to dress and undreS inf" asked
the radiant adolescent, possessing himself OF
q pink slipper and standing it on its little big
heel.
IN THE OUT TOWNS.
"Listen,n she said tragically, striking an
attitude like the favorite pose of Fanny Dav-
enport in @Fedora" "rm not going to tell
you anything about New York dressing
rooms, because-well, l don't know very
much about them, and my engagements
ahem!-call me principally to the provinces,
but can tell you all about the accommoda-
tions out of town. They are simply villain
Gus. They are disgrace to the managers OF
theatres. Now, in one town visited-i
won't mention names-I was shown my dress
ing room by the manager himself, who told
me he thought it such an Improvement on
the general run of dressing rooms. 1t was
a wooden box, not as large as one
of the bathing rooms at the Battery
baths. On one of the walls was q piece
of cracked mirror, which made my poor uose
look as though it were cut up into sections.
and gave me ghastly tint which no amount
of rouge would remove There were chinks
everywhere, and if there bad beeni one OF
those peeping Toms, one Of whom frightened
Mrs Langtry so much Mt Birmingham, ]
grieved to think of the predicament | should
have been in. Was it coldi Well should say
4 Tn
tie slippers-those very pink satin ones.
came to the theatre from hot dining room,
in the full process Of digesting my repast.
You can imagine with what danger to my
health was forced to undress, put OH low
bodice, and stand with trembling shoulders
while rouged myself, gloved myself, and
concluded myself. Ii my constitution hadn't
become accustomed to such exposure should
lave died Pm going to tell you more terrible
things. At one theatre | went to, / was
positively shown to dressing room without
a door-not q vestige of one. II l chose tc
dress in it, / must do SO in spite OF the stage
carpenters and men OF all work who passed
and repassed"-
"But you didn't choose, l trust"
l.. "No 1 thought it best not to do so. de-
clined to divest myself Of stitch until a tenn
porary door Of some kind or other had been
rugged up for me- OF course the men of all
work were most unwilling to help me, SO !
kept every one waiting by first hunting for
sheet. mailing it carefully where the door
should have been, and then dressing Next
day found a door-a brand new thing, but
still a door, and though it had no lock, was
very thankful for it,
AN INFESTED DEN.
awhile was still new TO the business" !"
continued the sunny haired actress, sitting
down by the radiant adolescent, II had to
play the part of bride in u little far away
place with one theatre-a grand opera house,
of course, where grand opera never could,
would or should be heard. had n magnifi-
cent white satin dress, on which prided my
self extremely. caused it to be sent to the
theatre to my dressing room to await me
there in the evening went early. may
say that was feeling very nervous and un-
strung. and when feel like that [simperingl
everything upsets me- Well, the evening
came. / was shown to my dressing room.
Such place! Such a vile, cold, contempti-
BILE. bare denl was undressed and was just
taking up my white bridal robe to put on,
when to my disgust, my horror, my loathing,
saw insects crawling over it, uttered
shrek, dropped it, and | think tainted.
ANYWAY don't remember how two Of my
colleagues got into my room, but there they
were NY den was literally infested as with
n plaauc. There were cockroaches in all di-
rections-cockroache TO right, cockroaches
to left-the most disgusting, persistent, con-
tinuous stream Of the-to me-terTible little
insects. What could do! l had either to
put my dress on or disappoint the audience
and relinquish my salary. | put my dress
on. went shudderingly through my part,
but my cockroaches kept making me amental
visit, and when the critics next morning said
that seemed to be playing with apreoccupied
mind think they were tolerably correct in
their surmises.
"In a very great many theatres" she went
ON. ayou find the walls Of your dressing room
If you can dignity them by the name of
walls-covered with legends which some
playful predecessor in fit Of abstraction has
left to immortality. They are mostly excla-
nations, and though they are biblical they
are not elegant. You get weary Of Jumping
Jehosaphat and Holy Moses, when you see
them at intervals of half an inch where your
wall paper ought to be. tell you that the
dressing room nuisance Is one of the biggest
nuisances Of the day-to US. We stand not
the least chance of having their condition
ameliorated We are in the hands Of the
managers. They can do as they like with US.
Our grievances can never be ventilated, as
no one is sufficiently interested in US to help
Us. People only care for what they can see.
They know that we always, or generally, look
nice, and it is a matter Of complete indiffer-
ence to the'general public by what means wo
look nice. In many respects ours is thank
less profession-there's no doubt about that"
And the radiant adolescent, looking up in
her face, did not dare to express dosbt, and
as his face was a gentle blank on all occa-
sions be had no difficulty in appearing pleas
ingly vacuous.-New York Times Interview.